NORTH WHITTIER – Residents here are banding together to seek limits on a proposed rail yard where trash would be loaded onto trains and taken to a desert landfill.

Calling themselves the North Whittier Neighborhood Watch Avocado Heights Coalition, residents have asked the Sanitation Districts of Los Angeles County to do several things.

They want to limit the amount of trash being sent out of this rail yard to 4,000 tons daily while the Puente Hills Landfill is open and 8,000 tons daily after it closes in 2013. They want the districts to seek other locations from where trash could be transported to the desert and to move the two rail lines that will be built farther away from existing homes.

Coalition members met with about about 80 North Whittier residents Tuesday in a town hall meeting to discuss their proposals and prepare for an upcoming meeting to discuss an environmental impact report on the rail yard.

The report is expected to be released in August. The yard must be approved by the city of Industry.

Rebecca Overmyer-Velazquez, coalition co-chairwoman, said its proposals would reduce problems from the proposed rail yard at a former Montgomery Ward’s shipping center, 2500 and 2520 Pellissier Place in Industry.

“It’s not unreasonable to ask other people to deal with trash,” said Overmyer-Velazquez. “We need to find another site.”

Overmyer-Velazquez said she fears the amount of trash will grow beyond the districts’ proposed 8,000 tons of trash daily.

The trash is going to a landfill in Mesquite in Imperial County that can take up to 20,000 tons a day.

Janet Coke, manager of the waste by rail section for the Sanitation Districts, said earlier Tuesday the rail yard is needed for when the Puente Hills Landfill closes. The rail yard is expected to open by 2011 or 2012.

Coke, who did not attend Tuesday’s meeting, said she believes the residents’ proposals are premature because the environmental impact report hasn’t been released.

“They need to wait and see the impacts and mitigation measures,” she said. “They’re kind of jumping the gun.”

Coke also said most of the residents who are protesting don’t live close to the proposed rail yard.

But Marilyn Kamimura. coalition co-chairwoman, said they’re within two miles of the yard and believe it’s unfair to put another trash facility in their area.

Residents pointed out that they already have a landfill, freeway and industrial buildings surrounding them.

“I used to walk twice a day in my neighborhood,” said Kamimura. “Now I go out only on Sunday mornings. If I need more exercise, I do it inside. My sinuses aren’t as bad and I’m not as hoarse as I used to be.”

Mike Sprague started at the Whittier Daily News in April 1984. Since then, Sprague has covered every city in the Whittier Daily News circulation area, as well as political and water issues. Sprague received a bachelor's degree in communications and a master's degree in political science, both from Cal State Fullerton.

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